We and our trusted partners use technology such as cookies on our site to personalize content and ads, provide social media features, and analyze our traffic. You can read more about it and change your preferences here.

These Conservation Workers Use Special Suits To Take Care Of Baby Zebras

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the news regarding coronavirus as it seems like the non-stop cycle is at its peak. However, any other news seems like a breath of fresh air, especially when it involves cute animals. Sheldrick Wildlife Trust recently shared an adorable (albeit a little tragic) post about a baby zebra they rescued. With 12K likes and 1.5K shares, it certainly caught people’s attention. In the Facebook message, the conservation detailed a rescue operation where they saved a beautiful zebra foal who, unfortunately, lost his mother to a pride of hunting lions.

Bored Panda reached out to Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for additional information and they kindly provided more details on the story, as well as some background on who they are and what they do.

“The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a not-for-profit and one of East Africa’s oldest and pioneering conservation organisations that has worked for the protection and conservation of wildlife and wild habitats in Kenya for over 40 years,” Amie, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s representative, explained. Amie also detailed how they use innovative and proven solutions to prevent wildlife poaching, human-wildlife conflict, habitat destruction, and drought.

Not too long ago, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust shared a post about one of their rescues, Diria

As for Diria, the representative said that most of the information they have on the foal they put into the Facebook post. “We don’t have any further updates at this time other than a roster of experienced keepers continue to care for him, which includes providing milk feeds, ensuring he has a warm stable to sleep in at night, and a protective ‘mother’ presence during the day,” she told us.

Most people, however, were quite intrigued by the images attached to the Facebook post, showcasing keepers wearing suits adorned with zebra-stripe patterns. There’s a very good reason for such attire, Amie explained:

“Baby zebras (called foals) need to be able to recognise their mother from birth to survive. To learn its mothers stripes, a mother zebra will often separate herself and her baby from the herd so that the baby can imprint⁠—essentially recognise and follow her coat, smell, and call. Once the calf can identify its mother, the duo will return to the herd.”

“In the wild, calves will be raised by their mother alone, but at our Reintegration Unit, it isn’t practical for a single individual to hand-raise Diria should they go on annual leave. Therefore, to avoid this fragile new-born imprinting on one person, our Keepers don a specially made striped coat that Diria will recognise as his ‘mum,’ regardless of who is wearing it. A team of caregivers can give Diria the specialist 24/7 care he needs to give him the very best chance of survival.”

When asked how people can help animals like Diria, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust representative also encouraged people to donate:

“We know that during these uncertain times, it can be really difficult to consider donating to charity and conservation given the virus that is dominating the news right now. But our mission is to continue to protect and preserve wildlife in Kenya and in practice, that means caring for individuals like Diria, which is wholly funded by donations. During these worrying times, we will need support more than ever to ensure that our activities continue. If anyone can’t donate, we completely understand and following us on social media would be amazing. We aim to continue to share all the success stories from the field made possible thanks to our supporters, many of which are feel-good.”

As a writer and image editor for Bored Panda, Giedrė crafts posts on many different topics to push them to their potential. She's also glad that her Bachelor’s degree in English Philology didn’t go to waste (although collecting dust in the attic could also be considered an achievement of aesthetic value!) Giedrė is an avid fan of cats, photography, and mysteries, and a keen observer of the Internet culture which is what she is most excited to write about. Since she's embarked on her journalistic endeavor, Giedrė has over 600 articles under her belt and hopes for twice as much (fingers crossed - half of them are about cats).

It's ironic when some says " nature is cruel". Nature is not cruel. Humans are cruel. Nature is plants and animals doing what they need, to survive and propagate. Lions hunting is the same as you going to the store and buying food to prepare. Don't be a hypocrite and accuse animals of cruelty, they can't go to Ralph's/Tescos or whatever grocer you go to.

Exactly, 80 % of all crops planted go to feed life"stock". If humans adopted the plant-based diet there would not be world hunger, there would be no shortages of drinking water, there wouldn't be global warming, there wouldn't be any deadly outbreaks of bad bacteria and lethal viruses. It's simple as that.

All these new vegan/vegetarians making comments about nature just being nature, while refreshing, are still missing an important point. Nature is violent and horrible. This baby zebra should make you sad. Maybe you will continue to evolve and eventually understand anti natalism.

Nature simply IS. Plenty of animals kill for fun or to practice their hunting skills (cats, wolves, dolphins, etc.) but humans definitely take this to a new level. The thing we can do is to kill responsibly. That includes facing up to what farming does at every harvest- kill millions of small animals and bugs. There is no way to survive without killing. It is the worst part of being alive- that to stay alive everything must kill something else. I would be a Breatharian if I could. :/

Lions don't force pigs to live in their own shit until they are eaten. Lions don't cram thousands of chickens into a building and call it "free range". No, lions hunting is not the same as humans going to the store.

...and lions do not kill 174 chickens every minute!!! Lions do not kill a pig every 5 seconds to cater to their insatiable appetite for meat. Animal predators eat to live; they don't live to eat like wasteful, destructive human animals do.

Nature is cruel, Jim, that's the fact. I don't know "who's" idea it was, having one creature to take life of another in order to preserve its own. It's beyond cruel. Nature is cruel, human beings don't have to be, depending on what sort of food they choose to eat. That bestiality is in human animals as well. Only way for people to co-exist in peace is to disassociate themselves from nature's abhorrent cruelty. The way humans choose to dine, is the way they'll live......or more precisely, the way they'll die; eating more than one million animals per hour is unsustainable!!! The pernicious overindulgence in consumption of meat is a human thing. Animal predators do not cause destruction of our planet, human predators do.

The guy with the striped coat will be save for Mosquito bites. Did you know that the stripes are a natural Mosquito repellent.It confuses the nuisances. That's the reason people cover their horses with blankets in this pattern

It's ironic when some says " nature is cruel". Nature is not cruel. Humans are cruel. Nature is plants and animals doing what they need, to survive and propagate. Lions hunting is the same as you going to the store and buying food to prepare. Don't be a hypocrite and accuse animals of cruelty, they can't go to Ralph's/Tescos or whatever grocer you go to.

Exactly, 80 % of all crops planted go to feed life"stock". If humans adopted the plant-based diet there would not be world hunger, there would be no shortages of drinking water, there wouldn't be global warming, there wouldn't be any deadly outbreaks of bad bacteria and lethal viruses. It's simple as that.

All these new vegan/vegetarians making comments about nature just being nature, while refreshing, are still missing an important point. Nature is violent and horrible. This baby zebra should make you sad. Maybe you will continue to evolve and eventually understand anti natalism.

Nature simply IS. Plenty of animals kill for fun or to practice their hunting skills (cats, wolves, dolphins, etc.) but humans definitely take this to a new level. The thing we can do is to kill responsibly. That includes facing up to what farming does at every harvest- kill millions of small animals and bugs. There is no way to survive without killing. It is the worst part of being alive- that to stay alive everything must kill something else. I would be a Breatharian if I could. :/

Lions don't force pigs to live in their own shit until they are eaten. Lions don't cram thousands of chickens into a building and call it "free range". No, lions hunting is not the same as humans going to the store.

...and lions do not kill 174 chickens every minute!!! Lions do not kill a pig every 5 seconds to cater to their insatiable appetite for meat. Animal predators eat to live; they don't live to eat like wasteful, destructive human animals do.

Nature is cruel, Jim, that's the fact. I don't know "who's" idea it was, having one creature to take life of another in order to preserve its own. It's beyond cruel. Nature is cruel, human beings don't have to be, depending on what sort of food they choose to eat. That bestiality is in human animals as well. Only way for people to co-exist in peace is to disassociate themselves from nature's abhorrent cruelty. The way humans choose to dine, is the way they'll live......or more precisely, the way they'll die; eating more than one million animals per hour is unsustainable!!! The pernicious overindulgence in consumption of meat is a human thing. Animal predators do not cause destruction of our planet, human predators do.

The guy with the striped coat will be save for Mosquito bites. Did you know that the stripes are a natural Mosquito repellent.It confuses the nuisances. That's the reason people cover their horses with blankets in this pattern